April 18 Blog Review

In Smart Ways to Use CRM Technology Tools Across the Company, DynamicsCafe discusses how technology has evolved over time and how everything is becoming more digital. Examples are given of how to fit CRM into all areas of your business.

PowerObjects posted, How to Expand the Email Description field in CRM this describes how to expand the description area on an E-mail Activity form. If you use the traditional form editing techniques the description box will not change size. You can follow these directions to edit the XML to actually change the appearance of the form.

If you are receiving an error when Activating/Deactivating records check out this post from PowerObejcts -Error when Activating/Deactivating Accounts or Contacts in CRM 2013.

CustomerEffective posted Dynamics CRM 2013 on Tablets: App or Browser. When looking at mobile options users want to know how they will access CRM – will it be from within the tablet browser or from a special app? This post discusses the differences and how the App can be used in conjunction with the browser to make everyone happy.

Parature: What is it and How Can it Help Boost Customer Satisfaction? This post from the CRM Software Blog discusses the Parature Acquisition and the main takeaways from the Convergence presentation. Parature is a customer service offering that allows you to have a single portal to communicate with customers. This gives a place for customers to look for their own answers or to submit support tickets. It also gives user the analytics they need to see what is helping their customers the most.

The CRM Software Blog also shared - How to Manage Cross-Entity Business Process Flows in CRM 2013. This works through how to begin using Business Process Flows from the Analyze/Design phase through to full use. Remember to fully document the process you want first to prevent unnecessary changes later in the build process.

Sonoma Partners discusses Microsoft’s social offerings in Microsoft Gets Social. This describes your many different listening options, tips for your set up and what the future holds.

You might need a CRM system re-launch if...(or how to avoid Zombie CRM) was also posted by Sonoma Partners. The reasons they mention to re-launch your CRM are: Consolidating CRM Deployments (many tools/systems across different departments), CRM system is stagnant (Zombie CRM – bad data quality, low user adoption, behind on updates), or you are outgrowing your CRM implementation partner (need higher quality, desire long-term vision, systems are too complex).

January 24 Blog Review

The big news this week was the release of Rollup 16. There are 3 places you need to look for all the details: CRM in the Field Blog, KB Article, and of course the Download Page. The list of fixes is huge in this rollup. Many issues that were introduced with Rollup 12 are listed as well as many CRM for Outlook fixes. Unfortunately, there are no particularly funny fixes (like Rollup 13’s “You cannot install Update Rollup 11 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 on a computer that has a French version of Windows, SQL Server, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 installed”). So it looks like it will be a good change, we will have to see what the user community has to say.

Here are what I found to be the top fixes listed in the KB:

• Important Fixes
• Email attachments are not being deleted from the dbo.Attachment table when their parent record is deleted.
• Clicking on report preview throws error on an Updated Organization from Update Rollup 6, "HttpUnhandledException: Microsoft Dynamics CRM has experienced an error. Reference number for administrators or support: #3423D182".
• Appointments and Service appointments are automatically shared with the user that shared the record.
• Reports do not render correctly after applying CRM 2011 Update Rollup 12.
• You can access System Settings no matter the security role assigned.
• Cannot update StateCode and StatusCode of Phone Call entity via plugin code.
• Creation and deletion of business units cannot be done in a timely manner.
• ERMO Fixes
• Deployments with large datasets in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 may suffer performance bottlenecks on default views, lookups, and queries if the EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization registry setting is set to zero.
• Unable to view Personal E-mail Templates with EnableRetrieveMultipleOptimization is set to 2.
• CRM For Outlook Fixes (many more that are not listed here)
• Changes made to the personal view query is not updating in Outlook client since Update Rollup 12.
• After installing Update Rollup 15 for CRM 2011 the Mail Merge button on the entity record Add tab does not seem to do anything when clicked.
• In some environments, conditions may exist when the registry keys of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook Client are being duplicated when being read causing an exception to occur that terminates the Outlook process.
• Conditional formatting breaks page navigation in view within CRM for Outlook client.
• When you select an email that is tracked in CRM, and you have the reading pane viewable for emails, Outlook may hang or become unresponsive. Once Outlook returns controls and becomes responsive you notice that the Track in CRM form region for the tracked in CRM email contains a large number of parties on the TO, CC, or BCC.
• Appointment created and deleted from the web will only be deleted from the organizers Outlook calendar. Occurs when the meeting organizer sends Outlook invitations.
• When you attempt to view html web resources in the CRM web or outlook client application by opening them from the ribbon, the web resources that are shown are old versions. This occurs even after you have published changes to the web resources. If you clear temporary internet files the web resources are shown correctly.
• Outlook saved views are not sorted alphabetically like in the web client.
• You receive error messages when accessing CRM fields in the CRM for Outlook client. "An error has occurred".
• Outlook Filter settings not taken into consideration when performing a quick search.
• Unable to configure CRM outlook client when TurnOffFetchThrottling is enabled.
• Outlook crashes when using CRM client for Outlook UR15 or UR11 CU.
• Odd Fixes
• Export to Excel in Outlook fails with long relationship/entity/field names.
• If the chart pane is enabled on any view for an entity in the Outlook client, and if the user utilizes the "Email a Link" feature and selects the current view, the URL that is generated and then copied to a blank e-mail will contain invalid parameters. Clicking on this link then generates a CRM platform error, which indicates that invalid parameters were passed to the request.
• When an error is raised when submitting the merge dialog form, and upon a second attempt to merge the data you change the selection of fields on the dialog, those changes are not submitted to the platform. The initial set of fields are used instead of updated.
• Filter in view does not work when for Option Set containing entries with '&' character.
• The owner of the child record in a merge inherits invisible rights to the master record.

Leon Tribe posted about Dialog Lookup Values for Common Entities. This explains what the Reference Entity and Reference Field are referring to when you create a new Dialog prompt with a lookup.

The CRM Software Blog reviewed their Top Ten CRM Software Blog Posts for 2013.

Jukka Niiranen discusses how to Expand the “Add Activity” Options on CRM 2013 Forms. This expands upon Develop 1’s blog to Restore Add Activity Buttons in CRM 2013.

That’s all for tonight.

September 13 Blog Review

News about CRM 2013 is starting to be released. Earlier this week the Release Preview Guide came out. Now partners are starting to talk about some of the features we should expect.

Let’s talk about the CRM 2013 posts first.

PowerObjects talked to us about two new features in CRM 2013: Quick View Forms and Portable Business Logic. A Quick View form allows you to view information about a record from within another record. To do this create the Quick View form and then edit the form for the related entity where you want the information to be displayed and add the Quick View form component there. This feature enables you to display more of the required information in one place. Portable Business Logic is a built-in way to perform actions usually handled with JavaScript. The blog works through an example and shows how to set up the full rule. This Portable Business Logic is called “Portable” because it can be used on multiple forms and works on all browsers/platforms/devices.

Here is a quote from PowerObjects Portable Business Logic blog:

Portable business logic allows you to define business rules for each record type. You can use it to do any of the following:

• Show a message to the user

• Change a field value

• Set a field as business required/not business required

• Show or hide a field

• Lock or unlock a field

 You can set all of these actions to occur based on conditions you set in the business rule. Conditions can be based on one of the following:

• If a field contains data or doesn’t contain data

• If a field contains a certain value or doesn’t contain a certain value

• If a field equals or does not equal another field value

Richard Knudson also posted on this logic also known as Business Rules. He works through a more complex example and includes lots of good information. There are some limitations to this functionality. For instance, you can only do a single set of conditions. So you can say if A is true, do B; but you cannot add an otherwise (else) if to this. Branching requirements will require multiple rules or going back to JavaScript. You also can only use fields in the Entity that the rule was written form.

McGladrey talks about the Business Process Enhancements in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. Process can now span multiple entities. Also the concept of synchronous workflows has been incorporated so users can see the change take place real-time. There is also the addition of Role-Based processes so a workflow can be triggered based on the user’s security role.

Some other new features for CRM 2013 include the new clickable Phone Number fields and Access teams which allow dynamic record access.

As mentioned previously, the Release Preview Guide came out this week. There were several blogs in relation such as CustomerEffective and CRMSoftwareBlog. The Preview Guide covers many of the features we have already talked about today. Most of it is still general but there is insight into the goals of the changes. Obviously better user experience is key with simplified data entry and flat forms. Also it is clear that we are moving into a code-free experience. So many things can now be down with built-in features. This will enable Microsoft to move forward with yearly releases because having all of this built-in with greatly simplify the upgrade process.

Also some great posts came out about CRM 2011.

CustomerEffective describes how to use Cases in CRM to Manage your Email. When you track an e-mail you can convert it to a Case. This is related to the customer and others with access to the customer can assist you when working on the issue or question.

Leon Tribe posted a great blog: Setting Long-Term Workflows in Dynamics CRM. This describes how to set up a workflow that will set up a date 1, 3 and 5 years in the future and wait until that date before resetting the date. It demonstrates how to use the Set To operators as well as Timeouts.

That concludes all the exciting news for today. I hope you enjoyed all the CRM 2013 news on this Friday the 13^th. It is spooky how close we are getting to the release.

August 29 Blog Review

It’s another short week with the Labor Day long weekend. Let’s see what the blog world holds for us today.

PowerObjects posted a Tutorial for Including Case History on the Account. This is good for whenever you want to add a sub-grid to a form. They also posted several blogs about Installing, Configuring and checking your version for CRM for Outlook but I don’t really want to talk about CRM for Outlook more than necessary.

Altico Advisors posted a Tech Tip on IFD Settings. Internet Facing Deployment and everything related is increasingly becoming a hot topic as more people want to access CRM on their mobile devices and as we prepare for the mobile friendly interface in CRM 2013. This blog discusses how to make sure your timeout settings are what you want them to be.

Now, if you are on the cutting edge and using Internet Explorer 10, you should read Chris Cognetta’s steps for setting up IE 10 to use CRM 2011. He describes how to update your compatibility settings as well as current know issues.

The CRM Software Blog highlighted an article about CRM 2013 Frequently Asked Questions. It highlights questions like when will I be upgraded, will my system be offline, and what are the major changes with this release.

The CRM Team Blog talked to us about Preparing JavaScript for the Upgrade. Here is what you need to know:

• Get everything UR 12 compatible. This will need to be done prior to CRM 2013. There is the Code Validation Tool for this, although the output is not very fun to work with. It is a great place to start.
• Get all your endpoints up to date. No more CRM 4.0 endpoints.
• Don’t Modify the DOM. It will not work in CRM 2013.
• Fix your unsupported changes. These will most-likely break as well.

Everyone loves Richard Knudson and he is a smart one when it comes to Business Processes. He wrote a great, albeit long-winded, article on how to create a Flexible Sales Process. If this isn’t something you need, still make sure you catch the tip about editing read-only fields through workflow: you can unlock the field while creating the workflow then set it read-only and the workflow will run and update the field correctly. This only needs to be done in your development environment; it will work fine when you import it into other environments.

That’s all the CRM news I have to pass on today. Have a great Labor Day Weekend everyone!